Mental Health
This measure of mental health looks at the number of people who have experienced at least one day of poor mental health in the last 30 days.
Mental health is complex, and it includes our emotional, psychological, and social well-being. It affects how we think, feel, act, and every component of our lives.
From 2018 to 2022, the number of poor mental health days experienced in a month by people in Washington has been steadily increasing from an average of 3.5 to 4.3 poor mental health days in a month.
LGBTQ people experience more poor mental health days than non-LGBTQ people. In particular, transgender people reported experiencing poor mental health more than half the month (average of 18 days).
There are also racial disparities in the experience of mental health. Individuals who identify as multi-racial, non-Hispanic, and American Indian or Alaska Native experienced the highest number of poor mental health days in a month across all racial groups.
The average number of poor metal health days is derived by calculating the total number of poor mental health days experienced (no. of days of not good mental health * number of people who chose that number) and dividing that total number by the number of people.
The data is from responses to the question “Now thinking about your mental health, which includes stress, depression, and problems with emotions, for how many days during the past 30 days was your mental health not good?” in the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance Survey.